Arizona
ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
UA should not accept daily fly-bys
By Jessica Lee
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
Today we look back on a day defined by horror on which three nursing
professors were murdered at the UA. But this event, though tragic, was
not the first time an incident has spawned campus wide terror.
Every student, faculty and staff member on campus is affected by the
Davis-Monthan air traffic, which many times throughout the day makes the
UA feels like a war zone. Nearly every day in between classes, students
have the opportunity to gawk at the jets that lurk over campus.
Not only do the war machines dominate the air over our little
intellectually founded city, but the sound of combat seeps down into our
classrooms, Mall discussions and, for those in the residence halls, into
our living spaces.
It has been 25 years since an A-7D Corsair II crashed onto North
Highland Avenue near the intersection of East Sixth Street and killed
two sisters who were students at the UA - a terrifying real-life example
of how it is impossible to reduce the probability of risk to zero.
There are fewer planes flying overhead than before the disaster. But
reducing the number of aircraft is not good enough. It is time, once and
for all, for Davis-Monthan Air Force Base to completely reroute its
flight patterns away from campus.
Each weekday, there are tens of thousands of people within the small
block of land we call campus. Reports from individuals on campus at the
time of the crash noted that the plane barely cleared the old student
union, flew level to the Science Library (the Henry Koffler building was
not there at the time) and brushed against the palm trees on North
Highland Avenue before it actually hit ground next to Mansfeld Middle
School.
In the end, the pilot heroically crashed the plane away from populated
areas, but it could have been much, much worse.
It is ludicrous that dozens of military planes fly over campus en route
to land at the base. We at the university and residents in the
surrounding community should not tolerate the U.S. Department of Defense
subjecting us to the disruption and risk associated with planes cruising
over the UA.
This article can be viewed at:
http://wildcat.arizona.edu/papers/97/46/03_3.html
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